


Tenuous

by INMH



Series: hc_bingo Amnesty Fills [6]
Category: Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Burns, Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Mild Language, Spoilers, Suspense, references to death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 10:24:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6701125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Queen receives a special mission. It goes to hell spectacularly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tenuous

**Author's Note:**

> SWEET JESUS THIS GOT SO LONG SO FAST, IT WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE 2,000 WORDS MAX. Better yet, due to an incredibly punishing work schedule this month, I started this on the 28th and finished it early morning on the 30th.

The sky was bruised.  
  
Blue behind a spotty curtain of black.  
  
Everything was crackling. Groaning.  
  
Her skin was on fire. Agonizing to the point of numbness.  
  
She couldn’t breathe.  
  
_“Hey, I think someone’s still alive in here!”_  
  
[---]  
  
“You asked for me, Commander?”  
  
“Yes. Please, sit.”  
  
Queen felt a small spike of alarm. Kurasame never asked them to sit. That meant the conversation was going to be a long one. Had she failed last week’s test? Been scoring lower on homework than usual? Had he noticed some fault in her form during the sparring session in the arena the other day?  
  
_Calm down. It’s probably fine._  
  
She took her usual seat at her desk, and Kurasame pulled his chair down from the stage to sit before her. His Tonberry was sharpening its blade next to Kurasame’s desk, and she found it strangely distracting as she tried to focus on the Commander.  
  
“I have a mission for you.”  
  
Queen swallowed, waited a moment to confirm that he wanted a reaction, and said, “Just me?”  
  
“Yes, just you.”  
  
Another pause. He must have been feeling out her willingness. “Why just me?”  
  
“The mission is of an incredibly secretive nature. It has been determined that the less people who are aware of it, the better. It’s also requires going undercover, and it will be less difficult for one person to go undetected. Naturally, such an operation will have an increased risk-factor, given that you will be alone.”  
  
“What’s the mission?”  
  
Kurasame’s eyes were intense, but there was something there, something more than the usual sternness, aloofness… Concern, maybe?  
  
“Given the… Fallout from the Queen’s assassination,” Kurasame began, “The Dominion finds itself in the position of being alone against two well-equipped forces that are considerably better-versed in warfare than we.”  
  
That little flash of anxiety spiked again. Class Zero was still taking abuse from their fellows from their perceived crime.  
  
“As it stands, we are out-gunned and outnumbered. We need help.” Kurasame paused. “The mission, Queen, is for you to covertly go to the Kingdom of Lucis and meet with King Regis to discuss the possibility of receiving military support.”  
  
There was a deafening silence that followed those words.  
  
_Lucis?_ To say that the relationship between Orience and Lucis had been strained in recent years would be an understatement. Admittedly this was less the fault of the Dominion and more to do with the fact that a trade agreement had been signed a decade or so ago that prevented any of the Crystal states from engaging in trade with Lucis without the consent of the others.  
  
How, exactly, was the king going to feel about a girl accused of being complicit, if not directly guilty, of regicide turning up on his doorstep?  
  
Alone?  
  
“You will not be penalized if you refuse. Obviously, the level of risk present in this mission is considerably more daunting than the average military maneuver. Should you be discovered by the wrong people, you will have to defend yourself alone. We believe that King Regis’s intentions are pure in allowing us to seek an audience with him, but in the event that something goes wrong, you will be in enemy territory with no back-up to speak of. Queen…”  
  
Queen’s eyes had drifted to the Tonberry again. She met Kurasame’s eyes again, and this time, the concern was more prominent.  
  
“There’s no shame in refusing.”  
  
[---]  
  
She couldn’t quite feel the hands that grabbed her under the arms.  
  
She did feel the dragging.  
  
Dragging over metal.  
  
Over rock.  
  
Over someone else.  
  
High pitched keening in her ears.  
  
She was _screaming._  
  
[---]  
  
“Sooooo where are you going?”  
  
Queen cleared her throat and kept her eyes on her book. “To Lorica. I’m to escort a group of scientists and Lorican survivors back to the blast site and see if they can’t collect anything… _Enlightening_. Maybe something that helps us understand how the Ultima Bomb works.”  
  
Cinque tilted her head to the side, pouting. “How come you’re going alone?”  
  
Queen rolled her eyes, stuffing down the lump that jumped into her throat. “I won’t be alone, Cinque, I’ll be with others.”  
  
“I think she means, why are you going without one of us?” Trey clarified.  
  
“I imagine our status as regicides to the rest of the continent means that the Consortium wants as few of us out of their sight as possible.” That was a good lie, one she came up with on the spot.  
  
“Wouldn’t that make you leaving without one of us dangerous?”  
  
That came from King. King who, as usual, had contributed absolutely nothing to class or this conversation for a good hour straight, only to chime in with something particularly insightful.  
  
Typical.  
  
“This is not beyond my skill-set. I can handle it.”  
  
She couldn’t help but notice Kurasame’s head tilt upwards slightly, away from whatever he was grading at his desk. He was looking at her, but trying to make sure it wasn’t obvious. Queen didn’t know what to make of it.  
  
“You can handle most things, yeah,” King conceded easily, but meeting her gaze in a way that said he was picking up on something the others weren’t. “I’m worried about the one percent that you can’t.”  
  
[---]  
  
The sky was clear.  
  
But her glasses were broken, fragmenting the unmarred blue.  
  
Her head fell to the side, lolling onto blackened grass.  
  
The skin of her cheek erupted into a million tiny pin-pricks of pain.  
  
There was a dead woman on the ground nearby. She was blonde.  
  
A few feet away laid a child. She was dark haired.  
  
She was the woman’s daughter.  
  
_How do I know that?_  
  
Her stomach lurched.  
  
**_I remember them._**  
  
[---]  
  
A brown blazer.  
  
A white blouse.  
  
Black slacks.  
  
Knee-high boots.  
  
Queen couldn’t recall the last time she’d worn plainclothes. She and the rest of Class Zero had been wearing some sort of uniform since the day Mother had started training them. The style had changed over the years, and sometimes they removed parts of it for the sake of comfort, but there was always a uniform.  
  
She felt strange. Unlike herself.  
  
Which might, perhaps, go some way in convincing those other than King Regis that she was just a Rubran civilian interested in studying at a Lucian university. Her cover- and possibly her life- depended on this illusion staying in tact.  
  
The messenger bag and small case she carried with her held nothing relating to her mission. She would undoubtedly be searched by customs once the airship had docked, and having anything relating to her mission on her person would be tantamount to suicide.  
  
By all accounts, the Lucians were happy with their king. They would not want an accused murderess of royalty in their kingdom.  
  
There was only one airship port in Orience that ferried people to Lucis, existing on the edge of the Innsmouth Region, and only two people accompanied her: Kurasame, and Emina Hanaharu. “She’s skilled, and I trust her,” Were Kurasame’s reasons for choosing her. Queen did not object, wouldn’t have even if it was her place to; Lady Emina was perfectly competent, and her abilities were renowned.  
  
Technically, the undercover aspect of the mission started the moment they left Akademeia. The story was that Kurasame and Emina were escorting a young university prospect to the port, though Queen was of the personal opinion that that story might come into scrutiny. Why would two celebrated soldiers be escorting a student? But, again, it wasn’t her place to object.  
  
Shortly before they got to the port, just when the knots in Queen’s stomach were starting to become quietly apparent, Kurasame directed them to the side of the road.  
  
“This is your passport,” He said, handing her the booklet. She had to assume he’d avoided giving it to her in Akademeia in concern that someone might see and realize that she wasn’t going to Lorica. “It has all the relevant information. They shouldn’t ask any questions beyond the ones I prepped you for.”  
  
“Right.”  
  
Kurasame was looking at her the way he’d looked at her in the classroom. With the look that made Queen suddenly a lot less confident about her chances. Emina was standing with the Chocobos they’d been riding, cooing to Queen’s and scratching its beak. Kurasame leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Queen. It’s not too late. If you like, we can turn around now and go back. You won’t be penalized.”  
  
It suddenly occurred to Queen that Kurasame was likely not the person who came up with this plan, nor was he the one to recommend her for it. Indeed, given his attitude, she had to assume that he hadn’t recommended any members of Class Zero for it. His confidence in Class Zero’s abilities had never wavered before… So it would have to be that his faith in mission was less than sound.  
  
Was that why he seemed so bothered by her accepting it?  
  
Queen took a deep breath.  
  
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Commander.”  
  
Maybe she wouldn’t be penalized for aborting the mission, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t feel just as poorly as she would if she failed.  
  
[---]  
  
Someone was looking down at her.  
  
It was hard to focus with broken glasses.  
  
He wasn’t the one who dragged her out. Too clean.  
  
Another man lingered in her periphery. He was wiping soot from his eyes.  
  
“Miss? Can you hear me?”  
  
The man above her was speaking. He had an accent.  
  
“Is she dead?”  
  
Another man. Couldn’t see him.  
  
“I don’t think so. Stunned, maybe, or in too much pain to communicate.”  
  
Green-white light, tugging on her body.  
  
“Geez, she looks so- _ow!_ ”  
  
“ _Hush_.”  
  
Blackness.  
  
[---]  
  
Customs passed without incident.  
  
Upon arriving in Lucis search by customs went without incident. Her passport was checked, her bag was searched, and she wasn’t asked a single question. They did more of a job interrogating the young man a few seats behind her, who apparently had a bit of flan ooze stuck to his pants.  
  
The airship had docked in the Lucian port with only a few passengers, but the numbers had swelled considerably on take-off. Queen was surprised to see the diversity of people: Parents with small children, unaccompanied children as young as maybe twelve, older men and women leaning on canes, average men and women with briefcases and newspapers and cell phones.  
  
Lucis was technologically advanced thanks to their Crystal, even more so than Milites could claim. People did not starve here. Airships and cell phones were part of a normal life, not an oddity.  
  
It occurred to her, not for the first time, how very different she was, how very much she did not belong here, and how delicately she must conduct herself if she wanted to avoid being-  
  
“Hey.”  
  
Queen started a bit, glancing behind her.  
  
The young man that had been getting a hard time from customs had located to the seat directly behind her, and she’d been so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed. _Stupid!_ Queen cursed herself.  
  
“Hello,” She responded, offering a fleeting smile that hopefully conveyed both pleasantness and a distinct desire to leave their interaction at that.  
  
Apparently, there was too much of the first and not enough of the second.  
  
“So, where are you heading?”  
  
Queen met his gaze, and groaned inwardly when she recognized the look in his eye, the same that she’d seen Nine adopt with some of the girls in Akademeia.  
  
Flirting. Of course. The one thing she admittedly is terribly unfamiliar with is of course the exact thing that she was not prepped for.  
  
“Insomnia.”  
  
The young man rolled his eyes. They were dark blue, and his hair was light brown. “Obviously. But _where_ in Insomnia?”  
  
“The university.”  
  
“Ah, brainy, then?”  
  
“So I’ve been told.”  
  
He stopped talking, but the occasional glance at the window to see his face reflected showed that he still had that look in his eyes.  
  
Either he was tenacious, or maybe Queen was more of a normal girl than she originally gave herself credit for.  
  
[---]  
  
Awake.  
  
“-consider that maybe we should find a hospital and _leave her at it?_ ”  
  
“I thought the entire point of dragging her out was to stop her from dying, not _ensure_ it.”  
  
“Clearly she-”  
  
(must have turned away, the words were inaudible now)  
  
“Look, if Noct can see it, then someone else will. You wanna put money on how crazy old man Aldercapt is gonna be about one of _them_ being here?”  
  
Darkness.  
  
[---]  
  
“Enter.”  
  
Queen hadn’t been expecting two men.  
  
The one who rose from his chair when she entered was clearly King Regis; she’d been shown pictures to ensure that she wasn’t deceived by an imposter. She knew him to be in his fifties, but he looked more like a man pushing seventy, which was even more apparent in person than on paper. His appearance went a long way in conveying the almost… Grandfatherly impression she got from him.  
  
No, it was the man standing beside him that brought her up short.  
  
No more than forty, short-cropped brown hair and blue eyes that were nearly as intense as the Commander’s. He looked considerably less welcoming, and that was troubling, since Queen did not have the faintest idea as to who he was or what he was doing there, beyond the educated guess that he was a bodyguard of some kind.  
  
But she caught herself, hesitating for maybe a split second before remembering where she was and who she was and who she was in the presence of. Queen knelt the way she knew she must have when she met Queen Andoria, the way that clearly indicated she had no intention of assassinating her at any point in the future, and hoped that it communicated the same to King Regis.  
  
“Your Highness.”  
  
“It’s a pleasure, miss. I’m afraid the messenger did not communicate a name to me when this meeting was arranged.”  
  
She looked up. “My name is Queen, sir.”  
  
“Queen?” Regis looked vaguely amused. “Is that the name you were born with?”  
  
Queen had never been bothered by her name before; indeed, she no longer had any memory of the one she’d had before Mother had found her. But in this moment, she wished she had a name that was a bit more conventional, if only to avoid the odd look the king was now giving her. To those in Orience, their names were a much smaller oddity next to their status as Class Zero. But outside of Orience, where people either knew very little to nothing of Class Zero and their purpose, their unconventional names were much more obvious.  
  
“No, sir.”  
  
“What is your real name?”  
  
“I can’t recall. I haven’t used it since I was very young.”  
  
“And you are a member of Class Zero?”  
  
Queen nodded. “I am.”  
  
She hadn’t realized that he knew she was from Class Zero; either that was an educated guess, or maybe he recognized her. Whatever the case, she didn’t see any point in lying to him. Knowing her run of luck lately, that would only end poorly for her in the long-run.  
  
Regis was watching her with some interest, though he didn’t speak for a moment or two. At first she assumed that he was observing her, attempting to feel out if she might be a threat or not. But it wasn’t really scrutiny that she saw in his eyes, or wariness. More like… Casual observation. Maybe he was confident that she wouldn’t be able to hurt him, or maybe the fact that Queen looked very much like a normal young girl (younger than his son, even) was working in her favor.  
  
The man standing to the back looked less relaxed. He was eyeing her with very obvious suspicion, like he expected her to summon her sword and launch an attack at any moment. Queen only allowed her eyes to flicker in his direction, trying to keep the majority of her focus on the king.  
  
“I have a question for you, young lady.”  
  
“Yes, sir?”  
  
Regis’s eyes were not unkind, which made the question all the more surprising: “Did you kill Queen Andoria of Concordia?”  
  
Queen’s calm cracked; her breath hitched, her eyes widened, and a slight, stuttered noise escaped her mouth.  
  
Neither of the men reacted. Completely unfazed.  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
_Calm down_. _You have done nothing wrong._  
  
She regained her composure and locked eyes with Regis.  
  
“No, Your Highness, I did not.”  
  
“Did any of your classmates?”  
  
“No, they did not.”  
  
“You’re quite certain of that?”  
  
“Yes, sir. We were all together when the ceasefire ended and Militesi troops attempted to kill us. We only learned of the Queen’s death after we had escaped.”  
  
Regis was silent again, but this time, it was much clearer that he was studying her expression, looking for tells, searching for dishonesty. If there was any moment where Queen knew she would feel the most endangered, it was now, in the moment where she was at the mercy of a man who could very easily say “I don’t believe you” and set an army on her. Of course, he wouldn’t need to; given his skills and the bodyguard’s assistance, they could probably take her easily. Queen was confident, not arrogant, and she knew damn well that she was no match for a man of Regis’s considerable experience and power.  
  
After a moment, a long, _long_ moment, a calm smile spread across Regis’s lips.  
  
“Excellent. Please, come sit.”  
  
[---]  
  
Awake.  
  
She was in a vehicle.  
  
The air was moving over her freely. It agitated her skin.  
  
There was a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. It agitated her skin.  
  
There was someone next to her. Her head was on their shoulder.  
  
It agitated her skin.  
  
The discomfort grew. Became pain.  
  
_No. Too tired for this._  
  
Darkness.  
  
[---]  
  
  
It was only once she was seated in the airship that was due to bring her back to the port on the edge of the kingdom that Queen began to relax.  
  
It had gone well. Regis couldn’t give an answer right then and there, but he had acknowledged that she’d made a persuasive case. Not to mention, the subject of the Ultima Bomb was of great concern to him; and it wasn’t as though the subject of an empire becoming dangerous was a foreign subject to him.  
  
Queen felt good about the encounter, but she would feel better once she was back on Rubran soil.  
  
“Mama,” A dark-haired little girl was shaking her mother’s arm. They were sitting next to Queen, who had politely smiled at the little girl when they’d sat down.  
  
“What is it, sweetheart?”  
  
“You’re not gonna make me eat those radishes, are you?”  
  
Queen glanced down at the mother’s bag, and saw groceries poking out from the top. She smiled, recalling a fair few times that Cater had protested the amount of carrots that had a tendency to make their way into their childhood meals. She still couldn’t abide by any food items that looked orange, particularly vegetables.  
  
She tuned out the mother’s gentle lecture about the values of eating healthy and turned back to the window, leaning her forehead against the glass.  
  
It was so _calm_ in Lucis. No one was worried about spontaneous invasions, about being bayoneted to death in the street, about rebuilding their home after having it burned down by soldiers. No one was packing up and considering running to the countryside to avoid the inevitable destruction of war once it finally came to their town, their city.  
  
Queen had never had the chance to observe Akademeia, or any other place in a time of pure peace for more than a few minutes. She and her classmates had been kept carefully away from others during their training with Mother. “You’re special,” She’d told them. “They wouldn’t understand.”  
  
In moments like this, what Queen wouldn’t give to not be special. What she wouldn’t give to actually be a prospective university student. What she wouldn’t give to have some measure of peace, without a glimpse of war or combat or preparation for it. What she wouldn’t give to be _ordinary_.  
  
That was when the missile collided with the side of the airship.  
  
[---]  
  
Blackness.  
  
Not unconsciousness, but the night sky.  
  
She was... in a sleeping bag.  
  
There was a clarity present in her mind that she hadn’t had since…  
  
Since…  
  
_Oh no_. _The airship. Those people._  
  
_I **remember-**_  
  
Queen gasped out loud, and suddenly someone was looking down at her. He was young, with wild blonde hair and freckles. He blinked down at her owlishly. “He-ey, you’re awake!”  
  
“Keep your voice down,” Someone hissed. The second man that stepped into view was one that she recognized; the one with the accent. He was adjusting his glasses as he knelt down next to her. “Miss, can you speak?”  
  
Queen opened her mouth, wincing at how dry it was. “Yes,” She croaked.  
  
“Good. Do you remember what happened?”  
  
“I was on an airship.” Her voice was cracking pitifully.  
  
“Here.” Someone handed the man a bottle of water. Queen tried to turn her head to see their face, but that sent a shock of pain through… Not her _neck_ , but rather, the skin of it. It had been years since she’d had a sunburn, as cautious as she was to look after herself, but this… This felt like that sunburn had, magnified considerably.  
  
“Do you want to sit up, or no?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Why she said yes, given the warning-bells that that first jolt of pain had set off, was beyond her.  
  
Sitting up was an exercise in agony. Her body ached, but every bit of her skin screamed in protest when any amount of pressure was put on it. It was only once she was sitting up completely and leaning against the cooler that the as-of-yet unseen man had pulled behind her that she could survey the extent of the damage.  
  
It would be easier to name the bits of Queen’s body that were _not_ bandaged. Her arms and legs were completely covered. Her neck… Not. She could see bandages just below the neck of her…  
  
…Not her shirt.  
  
The shirt she was wearing was not the blouse she’d set out with. It was black with some sort of silver decal on it, and far too large for her. She pulled at it, confused, and despite her newfound clarity, her mind was slow to put the pieces together.  
  
The accented man cleared his throat, cheeks reddening slightly. “My apologies. Your clothing was extensively damaged, and I needed to treat your injuries.”  
  
“It’s fine. What about my face?”  
  
“You were lucky. The worst of it was some blistering, and I’ve managed to reduce it down to a bit of redness. You won’t scar.”  
  
She accepted the water bottle he offered her. Her hands were unbelievably clumsy, and even trying to grip the bottle resulted in pain. But she wouldn’t allow him to help her, struggling until she managed to get a bit of water down her throat.  
  
“I’m Ignis,” The man said. He turned and nodded to the blonde, who’d been watching with interest nearby. “That’s Prompto.”  
  
The as-of-yet unseen man stepped into view. He was a big fellow, with his shirt half-open and tattoos on his arms. “Name’s Gladiolus. Call me Glad. And that lump over there-” He pointed to a mass of black that had been present on the edge of her vision a few feet away, “-is Noctis.”  
  
_Noctis._  
  
_Oh **no.**_  
  
Noctis gave her a vague wave as he yanked the dark blanket off of his head. He must have been sleeping, because she hadn’t even realized he was a person. As she looked closer, Queen confirmed with no small bit of misery that that was, indeed, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, King Regis’s only son and heir. She’d read his file, seen his pictures, and his wasn’t the sort of face you forgot.  
  
“Hey there,” He greeted, sleepy eyes meeting her own. “You’re Queen, right? One of those kids that killed Queen Andoria?”  
  
The name on her passport was ‘Violet.’  
  
He knew her real name.  
  
He recognized her.  
  
Queen was going to throw up.  
  
“I didn’t kill her,” She croaked, trying to stop the mad shaking that had overtaken her limbs. How in the _hell_ did he know it was her? Had his father told him? She thought he wasn’t even in Insomnia the day she’d visited the king. “ _We_ didn’t kill her. That was Milites.”  
  
“Relax,” Noctis said, “I’m teasing. Obviously you didn’t kill her.”  
  
“Yeah,” Gladiolus snorted. “Seriously doubt a bunch of child soldiers that live and breathe what their government tells them to do aren’t gonna kill a queen for the hell of it. ‘sides, those of us on the sidelines have figured out by now that most of what comes out of Aulstyne’s mouth is crap.”  
  
Queen’s temper flared slightly. “‘Child soldiers’?”  
  
“Yeah,” Gladiolus said. “Child soldiers. Unless you’re telling me that you’re actually in your twenties, and managed to get all your skill in the few years since you turned eighteen.”  
  
She didn’t answer.  
  
He smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”  
  
“Stop antagonizing her, the both of you.” Ignis scolded.  
  
“Where am I?”  
  
“The great outdoors,” Prompto gushed with overblown enthusiasm.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
The men all looked at one another. “… _That_ ,” Ignis began, fiddling with his glasses again, “is unclear. We saw the airship get shot down. We suspect maybe the pilot neglected to respond to the other ship’s communications.”  
  
Queen stared at him. “So they shot down a commuter ship?”  
  
“Iggy, you kinda forgot to mention that Niflheim invaded Lucis. That’s kinda relevant to the story.” Prompto threw in. Ignis threw him a dirty, exasperated look.  
  
Niflheim had invaded Lucis.  
  
By the Crystal, maybe she had taken the Dominion’s bad luck and dragged it with her to Lucis.  
  
[---]  
  
She told them everything.  
  
Well, not _everything_ , but everything they needed to know to dismiss any lingering suspicions about why a Rubran girl accused of regicide had a meeting with their now-may-possibly-be-dead king.  
  
“Well, hate to say it, kid,” Gladiolus sighed, “But I don’t think you’ll be getting any help from Lucis. Or Aldercapt.”  
  
“I figured.”  
  
“Was there a contingency plan?” Noctis asked. He was lying back on the ground, eyes shut, but it was apparent that he’d heard every word. “In the event that things went to hell?”  
  
“I was told to get to the coast and call a number that would connect me to my commander. He would then launch an effort to extract me.”  
  
“Not much use if things had gone to hell in the capitol,” Gladiolus chuckled darkly.  
  
“I’m aware.”  
  
“I thought you guys didn’t use phones?” Prompto inquired.  
  
“They don’t use them _commonly_ , Prompto, but they do have them.” Queen was starting to get the feeling that Ignis spent a lot of time correcting the blond.  
  
“Well, that makes this a hell of a lot simpler,” Noctis opened one dark eye to look at Queen. “All we have to do is give your commander a call, and he can come and pick you up.”  
  
“It may not be that simple. We’ve just be invaded by Niflheim, a power considerably stronger than that of Milites. They may not want to risk an extraction just yet, given the threat of becoming involved in another conflict.”  
  
The reasoning was sound, but Queen wasn’t sure. “The extraction plan was engineered under the idea that I would have run afoul of the authorities or military. I assume they’ve accounted for the risk of angering a foreign nation.” She paused. “In any case, my commander’s good at what he does. Even if he were to be detected, I assume he would deal with it accordingly.”  
  
“So all we need to do is call.” Noctis repeated.  
  
“Not necessarily.”  
  
Queen saw Noctis’s eye roll shut again.  
  
“We can’t guarantee that the lines of communication aren’t being monitored. If we attempt to contact your commander, we would have to keep our language coded. If it’s intercepted by troops looking for us, they may consider it suspicious enough to follow up on.”  
  
“You want her to stay here and get shot?”  
  
Ignis whipped his head towards Noctis. “Of course not.”  
  
“Then we need to get her out. Every second she spends here is another opportunity for someone to see her and start asking why she looks like she should be in a burn ward. Even if the troops from Niflheim don’t realize she’s Rubran, they’ll assume she was injured in the invasion and take her in for questioning.”  
  
He opened both eyes this time, and settled his gaze on Queen’s. “You don’t want that.” The matter-of-factness of it sent a chill down her spine.  
  
“No,” She agreed, “I don’t.”  
  
“Then we’re settled,” Gladiolus said, whipping out his phone. “You’re Violet, who just went to check out a university. What’s the number?”  
  
“I can do it.”  
  
“You sound like someone ran you over with a car. What’s the number?”  
  
Queen sighed, and rattled off the numbers.  
  
Her anxiety grew as Gladiolus waited through the rings. What if Kurasame didn’t recognize the voice and assumed it was a trap? Would he come? Would he risk it? Especially after all of his warnings, all of his less-than-subtle suggestions that maybe Queen should abstain from the mission?  
  
“Uncle Kura! How ya been, man? Hey, I ran into Violet today. Guess the university admins shot her down hard, and she’s not feeling too great. Did you want to come pick her up? She said something about a meeting place you two talked about.”  
  
She grimaced. Everything was fine- a bit overblown, but believable- until that last line. That sounded a little too suspect to be a man meeting his daughter. Or niece. Or what have you.  
  
There was a long, unsettling pause following Gladiolus’s little speech. It was impossible to hear what, if anything, was being said on the other side of the phone.  
Finally, “Mm-hm.”  
  
Queen let out a relieved sigh. At least he was being spoken to.  
  
“Mm-hmm.”  
  
Gladiolus’s eyes had previously been on the sky. Now they glanced at Queen.  
  
“Yup. Can do.”  
  
Pause.  
  
“Alright. See you then.”  
  
He clicked off the phone, and a massive grin broke out on his face.  
  
“Uncle Kura’s gonna come pick you up tomorrow night, Vi.”  
  
[---]  
  
Sleep was difficult.  
  
Between the irritation of her skin by the clothing and sleeping bag, and the pain, and the anxiety regarding tomorrow’s endeavor, Queen was finding it hard to relax in such a manner that she could actually fall asleep again. That she had been passed out for almost three days certainly hadn’t helped either.  
  
The middle of the night found her lying awake whilst everyone else was asleep, staring at the sky, and picturing the bodies of that woman and her child.  
  
The thought made her nauseous. She had become accustomed enough to dead bodies over the last few months that this shouldn’t have bothered her so badly, but it did. It was worse, so much worse, remembering how… _ordinary_ things had been right before. The little girl had been complaining about radishes. The mother was… being a mother. And then they were dead.  
  
This was what the Crystal protected them from. This needling, vicious grief that kept people up at night and made them dwell on the dead.  
  
There was nothing she could do for the woman or her daughter now. She knew that. But she couldn’t force herself to let it go.  
  
How did people _live_ like this?  
  
[---]  
  
As it happened, the particular section of the coastline that Kurasame was going to meet them on was about four hours in the opposite direction from which they had been traveling.  
  
They got ready to leave around eleven o’clock that morning; or rather, the men did. Queen wasn’t in a position to be doing much of anything at the moment. When most of the camp had been packed up, Gladiolus walked over to Queen’s sleeping bag and smiled down at her.  
  
“Alright, so how do you want to do this?”  
  
Queen raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
“Get you into the car, I mean. Do you want me to carry you, do you want to get on my back, do you want to try to walk-?”  
  
“No, no walking. Her legs are not in great shape. Believe me, Queen, you will regret it.”  
  
“I’ll take your word for it.”  
   
In the end, he carried her to the car, and Queen never realized just how horrible it could feel just to have someone touching your back. None of her injuries were presently life-threatening, but Ignis had made it clear that they were severe enough that they’d been on the verge of hunting down the nearest hospital before she’d woken up.  
  
Gladiolus seated her on a blanket, which he then proceeded to wrap around her. “We run into anyone, it can’t look like there’s anything wrong with you. The red on your face, that we can explain; the bandages, not so much.” It went without saying that if they aroused any suspicion, it would be the end of all of them. Especially Noctis, who was apparently supposed dead along with his father in the invasion.  
  
Prompto climbed in on one side of her, and Noctis on the other. “You can lean on me if you want,” Noctis offered. “I’ll probably just nod off again anyway.”  
  
“In fact, if we encounter anybody, you probably _should_ pretend to be asleep. It will explain why you’re covered so extensively.” Ignis suggested as he and Gladiolus got into the car.  
  
It wasn’t difficult to let her head drift onto Noctis’s shoulder during the drive. Unable to move without feeling pain meant finding a position that was comfortable and sticking to it, and the most comfortable proved to be with her head on his shoulder as suggested. With any hope, she might fall asleep at some point. She’d barely gotten an hour or so the night before.  
  
It took several failed attempts of sleep, closing her eyes only to open them again, seeing that mother and daughter whenever she got just near the edge of sleep, to finally give up. Ignis and Gladiolus exchanged the odd word with one another, and Prompto was playing with a piece of rope.  
  
Queen suddenly remembered something she had intended to ask Noctis the night before, but had forgotten once Kurasame had been contacted.  
  
“Your Highness.”  
  
“Noctis.”  
  
“Noctis, then. How did you know who I was?”  
  
Noctis shifted a little bit in his seat. “It was on the news. My father got a briefing on it. Our intel division has pictures of all of you.” His eyes cracked open. “Huh. I thought we didn’t need to worry about you getting recognized. But I guess if Aldercapt’s taken Insomnia, there is actually a chance that he knows what you look like by now.”  
  
Queen’s heart sank as she realized the truth of that. “It wouldn’t surprise me. He’d likely be curious as to who was visiting you father so privately.”  
  
“Mm. Well, you won’t have to worry about that much longer.”  
  
Hopefully.  
  
“Where were you going before you found me?”  
  
“Altissia. My…” Now his eyes opened all the way. “… _fiancée_ is there.”  
  
“Ah. Who is she?”  
  
“Lunafreya Nox Fleuret.”  
  
Queen lifted her head in surprise. “The Oracle?”  
  
“Yup. We spent some time together as kids. Now we’re getting married.”  
  
She couldn’t quite gauge his tone. What information Rubrum had on the prince had warned that he was guarded, but she wasn’t entirely sure what he was attempting to guard in respect to this discussion.  
  
“How old are you?”  
  
Queen blinked. “What?”  
  
“How old are you?”  
  
She briefly debated with the idea of lying. “You don’t know? I thought you had information on us.”  
  
“It’s limited.”  
  
After a moment, Queen said, “I’m seventeen.”  
  
“Mm. Thought it was about that.” A pause. “You pretty much confirmed you’ve been training since you were young last night. How young?”  
  
“I was eight when Mother found me.”  
  
Abruptly, Queen kicked herself. She should not have used the word ‘mother’; and to her deep regret, Prompto looked up from his rope and joined the conversation.  
  
“‘Mother’?”  
  
“Dr. Al-Rashia. She raised us as her own children and trained us.”  
  
“To be soldiers?”  
  
“To be Agito cadets.”  
  
“So… To be soldiers that save the world.” Noctis clarified. Prompto nodded his agreement.  
  
They needed to steer away from this conversation before it went too far. Mother had told them a long time ago that Agito was a foreign concept to most people outside of Orience, and those that understood the definition rarely understood the full implications of what it meant to _become_ it.  
  
That, and the fact that Gladiolus’s assessment that she was a ‘child soldier’ last night had let her know how they felt about teenagers engaging in warfare. Any further development of this conversation might end with Noctis or Prompto either saying or implying something less than flattering about Mother, and injured or not, Queen wouldn’t stand for it.  
  
“Yes, Agito cadets are meant to train in the hopes that they will save the world one day. Most youth in Rubrum train in the hopes of becoming Agito cadets in the hope that they will become Agito. You are correct.”  
  
Maybe it was her tone, maybe it was the bluntness with which she spoke, but the conversation ended there.  
  
[---]  
  
“Uh-oh. We got company.”  
  
Queen was irate at first, having nearly drifted off before Noctis’s shoulder jerked sharply beneath her head. Once she had processed Gladiolus’s words, however, the irritation quickly turned to fear.  
  
There was a roadblock up ahead. At least twenty Niflheim troopers were stationed there, examining a silver car they’d stopped. As their own car began to slow down, the silver car was waved through.  
  
“Shit,” Noctis whispered.  
  
“Noct, Queen, sleep.” Ignis ordered in a low voice. “Prompto, let Gladiolus do the talking.”  
  
“Keep your face down, Noct,” Prompto muttered as he went back to his rope. Queen hoped that he didn’t focus too intently on it. From what she had seen thus far, Prompto wasn’t stupid, but neither was he a talented actor or liar.  
  
She set her cheek back down on Noctis’s shoulder, trying to force the tension from her shoulders and look asleep. The prince seemed to be having a considerably easier time of it; he grabbed part of the blanket and draped it over himself. What was worse than having to relax, though, was having to shut her eyes and make sure she wasn’t squeezing them in a way that said pretending-to-sleep instead of actually-asleep.  
  
Naturally, the gravity of the situation hit just as the car was about to roll to a stop. They might be discovered. They could all be executed right there. She would not go home, she would not see her classmates or Mother again- and they would all forget her as well forget that they ever had a classmate that went off to “Lorica” and never came home. Would anyone even bother telling them about her, given the covert nature of her mission? Or would they just let it go- what did one dead member of Class Zero mean? They still had thirteen to use.  
  
“Afternoon, man,” Gladiolus greeted after the car stopped. “How you doing?”  
  
“Registration. Now.”  
  
It took effort to breathe normally instead of holding it. Queen wasn’t terribly familiar with the concept of privately-owned automobiles, but wouldn’t the owner’s name be on the registration? And, if the car belonged to Gladiolus, Ignis, or Noctis- all of whose names would be immediately recognizable to the empire- they would be caught, wouldn’t they?  
  
There was some shuffling. Papers rustling.  
  
Queen waited.  
  
More rustling.  
  
“Where are you headed?”  
  
“Lestallum. Or we were, until that blond jackass in the back seat forgot his phone in a diner bathroom and demanded we go back to get it.”  
  
Queen felt Prompto budge a little closer to her. Probably to conceal the fact that the phone was in his pocket and most definitely not in a diner bathroom. She might have laughed if it wouldn’t have signed their death warrants.  
  
Without warning, Noctis swayed slightly, and he grunted. “Hey, wake up,” Came the soldier’s gruff order.  
  
“Aw, don’t wake them up,” Prompto groaned, breaking the no-talking rule. “They get grumpy when they get woken up. ‘sides, Vi’s got one hell of a sunburn, and she’s been in a real mood the past few days.”  
  
“Who are they?”  
  
“Violet and Clover. They’re twins.” Ignis supplied.  
  
If there was any moment to hope that Gladiolus’s conversation with Kurasame had not been listened in to the night before, it was now. There had been no mention of a Clover in those messages, only Violet- unless they assumed that ‘Clover’ was the one who’d made the call.  
  
“Are you meeting anyone in Lestallum?”  
  
Queen was fairly certain she felt her heart stop.  
  
They were not meeting Kurasame in Lestallum. Or rather, ‘Violet’ was not being taken to meet ‘Uncle Kura’ in Lestallum. She was being taken back towards Insomnia. Which was precisely the direction in which they were currently heading.  
  
“Yeah, Vi and Clover’s uncle’s going to be there.”  
  
It was quiet for such a long time.  
  
_Believe the lie. Believe it. **Please.**_  
  
Maybe they’d think they’d misheard. Queen hadn’t the faintest idea how Kurasame had explained the rendezvous point to Gladiolus.  
  
Finally- _finally_ -  
  
“Get going, then.”  
  
“Got it. You boys have a good day.”  
  
Queen only knew it was safe to come up for air when the car started moving again and Prompto moaned loudly.  
  
“Ohhh man, that was _close._ ”  
  
“They had our collective balls in a vice.”  
  
“Don’t be rude, Glad.”  
  
“Hey, I think I’m entitled, given that we almost all got shot!”  
  
Noctis let out a breath, and his eyes opened slowly. “Boy, let’s not do that again.”  
  
“I’ll find a different route on the way back.”  
  
“Don’t,” Queen warned. “They think you’re going to come back this way, right? They’ll find it suspicious if they think you’re avoiding them.”  
  
“She makes a good point.”  
  
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Gladiolus said. “For now, let’s focus on getting the blatantly injured Rubran soldier out of our hair.”  
  
He glanced over his shoulder and winked at her.  
  
[---]  
  
“Aw, man, this is spooky.”  
  
It was readily apparent why Kurasame had chosen this particular stretch of beach on which to arrange the extraction. Evidently the environment caused it to have a chronic fog problem, and said fog was so dense that it was nearly impossible to see very far out onto the water.  
  
Queen sat on the blanket in the sand, next to Noctis. “I’m not terribly pleased with the lack of visibility either,” She admitted. “With my luck as it’s been recently, it wouldn’t surprise me if Niflheim’s entire military came down here for a beach party.” She sighed. “I already have one bloodthirsty empire to worry about. Two, two is too much.”  
  
Noctis rolled his head to the side and stretched his neck. “Well, as the Prince of Lucis, I think I have the authority to say this: How about whoever kicks their empire’s ass first comes back around and gives the other a hand?”  
  
Queen smiled wanly. “I don’t know how eager the Consortium will be to get involved in another war. Besides, the bulk of the power given to Rubrum by the Vermillion Bird Crystal is given to us through our magical ability. Without it, we’re not quite as formidable militarily.”  
  
“How about just you and your Class Zero buddies, then?”  
  
She thought about that. Queen honestly couldn’t see anyone in Class Zero objecting to a chance to see the Kingdom of Lucis. The war part might not be as readily accepted- well, by some of them. Nine, Sice, Cater- they were always ready for a fight.  
  
“I’ll see what I can do. No promises, though. I am but one cadet.”  
  
“Ah, go off and save the world and see how you feel. We’ll probably throw Aldercapt out before you finish with Mr. I-TOTALLY-Didn’t-Kill-the-Emperor-or-Queen.” Prompto said cheerfully, pitching a piece of driftwood into the water.  
  
**_Fwoosh._**  
  
Everyone’s heads snapped to the water. The driftwood had not splashed- it had disappeared into the fog, and a flash of light, of _fire_ had been briefly visible several yards away from the shore. Prompto and Gladiolus backed away from the water, and Ignis stepped away from the rock he’d been leaning against.  
  
“Brace yourselves, they may not be friendly,” Gladiolus muttered out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
Ever so slowly, a small boat began to emerge from the fog. There were no lights visible anywhere on it. There were, however, two silhouettes visible; Queen did not have to look very long to realize who the one on the left was. She saw him take that same stance nearly every day in class.  
  
“That’s the Commander Susaya on the left.”  
  
“And the other?” Ignis asked.  
  
Queen squinted. “I’m… Not sure.”  
  
Noctis leaned forward, frowning. “Didn’t you just say that Rubrans can’t use magic outside of Orience?”  
  
“Yes…” Queen hesitated. “Except for…”  
  
“Except for?”  
  
“Except for us, Class- _That’s King!_ ”  
  
This, this was relief. Finally there was some sense of security in her future. Queen was going home. Maybe there was a war on back home, but at least that was something she was familiar with, could deal with. Lucis had too much unpredictability, too much unfamiliarity.  
  
That being said, at least these new friends of hers were kind.  
  
“Bye, Queen,” Prompto said, sounding a bit sad. “Maybe next time we see you, you’ll be able to walk! And not be really badly burned!”  
  
 “I do hope you’ll come see us when things aren’t going completely to hell.” Ignis said.  
  
“Remember that deal. I expect an army.” Noctis added, standing up.  
  
Gladiolus knelt down and picked her up. “Glad to meet you, kid.”  
  
Queen smiled. “Thank you all. You… Quite literally saved my life.”  
  
“Ah, it’s no biggie. Come back some time and we’ll tell you about the sort of crap we’ve pulled these two out of.” He nodded to Noctis and Prompto.  
  
Kurasame and King hopped out of the boat and into the shallows, the latter coming forward to meet Gladiolus. “Thank you,” He said as he took Queen into his arms. Really, Queen knew he was strong, but she hadn’t realized he was quite this strong. “Gonna jump, hold on.” He leapt back into the boat, settling Queen down on the deck. “You alright?”  
  
“I’ve been better. But this could have been worse.”  
  
A rare smile crossed his face. “Handling it, as always. Didn’t expect you to be making friends, though.”  
  
Queen allowed herself a small smirk of her own. “Neither did I.” Then she sobered. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”  
  
“Oh, I have an idea.”  
  
Kurasame hopped back into the boat, turning and giving a parting wave to the guys on the beach before starting the engine and turning about. The boat must have been specially designed, because despite the motor, it didn’t make a single sound.  
  
“Queen,” He said, kneeling down next to her. “It’s good to see you safe.”  
  
“Likewise, Commander. I met with the king. He was agreeable, but I don’t know how much good it will do now.”  
  
King rolled his eyes. “Always the professional.”  
  
“We can worry about that later. Right now, I want you to lie still and not aggravate your injuries.”  
  
“Yes, sir.”  
  
She lay back against King’s chest, fatigue settling in with surprising speed. The only concern that lingered at the back of her mind was for Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto. She hoped that they would avoid detection. She hoped that Noctis would be reunited with his father. She hoped that she could come back to Lucis with her friends on a day when there wasn’t a fight to be had, and when every step wasn’t falling on eggshells.  
  
Of course, if the Lucian military came to knock Cid Aulstyne into the new year, she wouldn’t mind that either.  
  
-End


End file.
